Why my family is super cool
by missmissa85
Summary: Eight-year-old Arwen Leigh Maitland-Temple doesn't have a quiet home life, but she wouldn't have it any other way. A Connor/Abby future fic.


A/N: So, my first Primeval fic, and it's basically a lot of Connor/Abby fluff because I fell in love with that pairing less than ten minutes into the second episode of the first series. It's a future fic, so it will likely become AU by January 2009. Hope you enjoy. And…reviews are love.

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My name is Arwen Leigh Maitland-Temple. It's a mouthful, I know. You see, my mum and dad never got married, so I wound up with both their names. It's not that my parents don't love each other or something bad like that. They started to get married, but every time mum would start down the aisle a crisis at work arose and preempted their wedding. After the third time, they decided marriage wasn't entirely necessary to a committed relationship, or, at least, that's what they told me when I asked.

You might be wondering what sort of job could be so important that it would make two people abandon their wedding on three separate occasions. Well, that's a wee bit complicated. My parents save the world for a living. Not by themselves, of course. They've got Uncle Nick and Aunt Jenny and Mr. Lester, whose job I don't entirely understand. Of course, I'm only eight. What can I really be expected to _understand_? What was I talking about? Oh, right, Mum and Dad's job. They save the world from dinosaurs and other predators, and they got a mammoth off a highway once, but not a woolly one. The mammoth, not the highway.

I didn't know about hardly any of this until two years ago, just before my brothers were born. You see, Mum and Dad always argued when they got an urgent call from work. Daddy always thought Mum should stay at home, and one time he shouted at her. He said, "Abby, it's not just your life at stake!"

I heard him, of course, and I asked what they did that was so dangerous.

"Oy, Love, what're you doing up? It's past your bedtime," Daddy said, kneeling down in front of me.

"You were shouting," I told him.

"We're sorry, Sweetheart," Mum said. "It's just that we've got a call from work and—"

"And Daddy doesn't want you to go," I said angrily. "Why doesn't he want you to go? What could happen to you?"

"Sweetheart, nothing's going to happen to me," Mum told me.

Daddy looked back at her, kind of angry. "Abby don't make promises you can't keep, especially to our daughter," he told her.

"Connor, shut it. You'll scare her," Mum hissed back.

"She should be scared."

That came from my parents' boss, Professor Nick Cutter, my Uncle Nick. He was just standing at the top of the stairs in our flat calmly staring down both my parents.

"How did you—" my daddy started to ask.

"Ya gave me a key nearly ten years ago," Uncle Nick reminded him.

"Oh, right," my daddy muttered.

Mum took a deep breath and said, "We were just on our way."

"No, _we_ weren't," Daddy protested.

"Don't," Uncle Nick warned them sternly. Mum and Dad looked away from him angrily. I giggled.

Uncle Nick squatted down to my height and said, "Arwen, Sweetheart could you do me a favor?"

I went over to him and answered, "Of course, Uncle Nick."

"Go upstairs and put on your shoes and a coat."

"What?" Mum and Dad said together.

I looked back at Uncle Nick uncertainly. He nodded at me. "Go on, Arwen," he told me. "Shoes and coat. Quickly now."

I hurried up the steps to my section of the loft. I waved Rex, our rare, exotic flying lizard from far eastern Asia, off my shoes and started putting them on. I quietly recited the rhyme Daddy taught me. Mum and Dad and Uncle Nick were all speaking quietly so I wouldn't hear, but I'm not deaf, and sound really carries in our flat.

"We are _not_ taking Arwen to work with us," Daddy told Uncle Nick.

"Yeah, that's something we can agree on," Mum added.

"She's old enough to know the truth," Uncle Nick told them.

"She's six years old," Mum said, louder than I think she actually intended.

I had my shoes on at that point, and I leaned over the railing. "I'm mature for my age," I shouted down at them. "All my teachers say."

"Yeah, but Connor Temple's your dad, and I think that kind of cancels it out." I'm still not entirely sure what Mum meant by that, but Daddy was obviously insulted, and Uncle Nick even smirked.

"Get your coat, Arwen," Uncle Nick called up to me.

I quickly obeyed and ran back down the stairs to the main level of the flat.

"She is _not_ coming with us," Mum said firmly.

"With me, you mean," Daddy said.

"Connor," Mum said with her teeth together.

"Do they always argue like this?" Uncle Nick asked me.

"Only since Mum said she was having my brothers," I answered.

"Ah, well that makes sense then," Uncle Nick said, picking me up.

I looked back at Mum and Dad. They were looking at each other guiltily.

"Why does it make sense, Uncle Nick?"

"I'll let your mum and dad tell you that story," he answered. "Right now, we're going to your school."

"Arwen's school?" Daddy asked.

"Yeah, that's where the anomaly appeared," Uncle Nick explained. "C'mon, we've gotta go."

"Abby's not coming," Dad stated.

"Yes, she is," Uncle Nick told them.

"Ha!" Mum shouted triumphantly at Daddy.

"But she's not getting within a hundred meters of the anomaly," Uncle Nick said as he started down the stairs.

I saw Daddy grinning smugly at Mum from over my uncle Nick's shoulder.


End file.
